


All For You

by BasementVampire



Category: The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe
Genre: Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 22:51:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6678559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BasementVampire/pseuds/BasementVampire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Montresor, on his deathbed, writes a letter to someone from his past and explains why he killed Fortunato. But was it true love, or just the delusions of a deranged madman?</p>
            </blockquote>





	All For You

Dear Christine,

I am aware that this letter may come as a surprise, for we have not spoken in many years.  I am sure you will remember me—I cannot forget your face and sweet voice, as much as I try.

That is the reason I am writing to you.  I have forgotten many things over the years, but along with you, something else burns itself into my memory.  You asked me once if I knew what happened to your husband.  I said no—I lied.

My hands are shaky as I pen these words, not just from the cold of my study.  My hair has long since gone white and my brow become creased, and I fear I haven’t long before the dark sets in.  So this is my last chance to tell you the truth.

You will find, of course, I am fully justified in what I did.  And I need you to understand that there was a reason for it all—the last thing I want is for you to think me a deranged madman.

My Christine, it was a happy time for me, back in the days of my youth, when I met you.  We were so in love, you and I, although I’m sure you must recall.  I wanted to marry you.  Even though you turned down my marriage proposal twice, I know you did not really mean no.  You couldn’t have, surely—we were so in love, were we not? 

The day Fortunato came into the city on business was the day I lost you forever.  He disparaged my family name and forced you to marry him, and I vowed to exact my revenge upon him.  Perhaps if Fortunato had not spoke ill of me to your father, we would have finally been allowed to marry.  (I realized at once, of course, what had happened—it was your father who had forbid us to be wed.  That is the only reason you would have turned me down—twice—for our love was not a figment of my imagination.  Had you been free to do as you pleased, we could have been so happy.)

I cannot elucidate the hatred I had for Fortunato.  It was a hate that I suffered in silence until at last I was able to punish him for taking what was mine.

That’s what I did—I made him pay.  I made sure that no one would ever see him alive again.  I didn’t kill him, of course, Christine, I’m not a monster.  I simply removed him from the picture, so that you and I could be together.  All this I did out of love—love for you.

I am sorry it could not work out as I meant it to.  But now you know the truth—that even as I told you I had no idea what happened to your husband, his corpse was rotting away in the wine cellar beneath my house.  I’m sorry I lied.

I hope you can understand, sweet Christine.

Forever Yours,

MM


End file.
